Treats and Sweets
by StatsGrandma57
Summary: Leia and her young children baking goodies for Winter Fete. Started as a one shot, seems to be growing. The twins are five and a half, Anakin is 4. Chapter 3 finishes it off :)
1. Chapter 1

TREATS AND SWEETS

Chapter 1

"We need to stop at the bakery for some biscuits," Leia informed the twins, aged five and a half, and four year old Anakin.

"Aww, Mom! Neshri's mom always bakes theirs! Why do we hafta go to the bakery?" Jacen whined.

"Because I'm not a baker," Leia replied.

"But we are!" Jaina informed her mother.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease, Mom?" Anakin begged.

Leia's shoulders sagged. Sweet biscuits were a delicious Winter Fete tradition, and there were several good bakeries in the area. Leia could, after several years of instruction from Han, could whip up a good meal. But Han had never taken much to sweets, and Leia was always in a time crush.

The pleading looks on her children's faces were probably a great example of method acting.

"Mom, you never bake anything. I wanna learn to bake!" Jacen insisted.

Resisting those faces was something Leia was incapable of.

"Okay, we'll bake. But we have to get a lot of things to do this, so you're going to have to be patient while we shop."

"I'll be good!" Jaina announced eagerly.

"All right. Jackets, hats, mittens."

For once, there was no struggle to get the three ready to head out.

Let's see how they are after they find out how many shops we need to go to, Leia thought as she bundled up.

01123581321345589144233377610987

Winter Fete was due to begin at sunset the following evening. The first and last nights were for gift exchanges and the shops were crammed.

"Stay close, kids. It's a madhouse out here," she ordered the children. So far, they were excited and cooperating. She hadn't purchased a single gift; Han was going to be looking after the kids once he arrived home and she was going to join the last minute looters and plunderers. At least the gifts on first night were modest ones; larger gifts were exchanged on the last night.

The first thing Leia needed was a recipe datapad. The selection of available volumes was mind boggling. She finally chose one that promised simplicity in all recipes; it was designed for children, and Leia considered herself as a baker to be just about that level. She figured maybe at least one of the kids would decide someday to learn to bake.

Having located a book with some suitable recipes for Winter Fete biscuits, the next phase was to find cutters for the various shapes that were traditional. The traditional ones were bells, various winter flowers, snowflakes and candles. The kids approved of them, and the final challenge was foodshopping.

Leia had never gotten comfortable in the massive food market. Han knew everyone and anyone, as he was the one who did the most stocking up, and apparently conversations were part of the experience, but Leia hoped that she could get by and not be noticed. Her hair has in braids wrapped up around her head, a toque covering most of it. She was without cosmetics and dressed in her most casual clothes, buried under layers of winter apparel.

"Jaina, read what I need," Leia said, handing Jaina the recipe datapad, which listed the ingredients needed. Unfortunately, the ingredients were not all in the same place, and Leia found herself repeatedly asking her daughter and sons where things were; they didn't always go with Han but they accompanied him often enough that they had a clue as to where everything was located.

The kids had behaved well for most of the expedition, but in the food market, the teasing, taunting, pushing and shouting had begun again.

"Stop it now, or we won't be baking anything," Leia hissed at them.

The kids were astute enough to know that they'd gone over the line if she was hissing. If she'd been yelling, they wouldn't have considered it significant.

The market was crowded, and Leia had been grateful for it, but hoped that the holorazzi had not been around. She and Han had gotten a court order saying that the children were off limits, but some of the holographers had ethics that were more questionable than those of some former Imperial tyrants, and the payoff could be worth the risk, depending upon which publications would purchase the holos. Leia hustled them out and hailed a holotaxi; the infamous 'wintry mix' that Coruscant was famous for in the cold months was now coming down heavily. It had barely been an icy drizzle when they'd left their apartment.

The warmth of the apartment was welcome. Jaina, Jacen and Anakin all entered and tossed off everything but their boots, which they tracked all over the floor. The pile of jackets, mittens, toques and scarves were tossed into a heap.

And people wonder why I don't entertain at home, Leia muttered to herself. Their home wasn't dirty, but it was cluttered, as in, every inch of available space was covered. Leia groaned as she observed the sink full of breakfast dishes, kaf mugs, and drinking glasses.

"Jaina, Jacen, dishes in the scrubber," Leia announced to the two older children.

"But we wanna bake!" Jaina protested.

"So do I, but there's no room in the kitchen. You and Jacen are in charge of the dishes. Anakin, put the food away." There were several boxes of cereal, breakfast breads, honey and jam occupying whatever counter space could be freed up, which, admittedly, was not a lot. The dining room table was going to have to serve as a workspace. Leia wished that she had a tarp to put under the table. The last one they'd had was taken to the rubbish bin after Anakin had decided that food was something one threw at one's siblings as opposed to on the floor. That, too, was covered with datapads and stuffed animals and books and gods only knew what else. As she'd run out of children to employ, she figured she was the one to do it.

We really need a larger place, she thought as she attempted to organize the detritus on the table. It was a beautiful dining table; Han had built it when they were first married. He had built it to last at least a hundred years; that was his motto for building furniture. The bed they slept in, made love in, conceived three children in was designed with the same intent. And the cradles he'd built when the twins were born was something that was bound to be an heirloom.

The apartment might not have been tidy, but it was bursting with memories. Sometimes literally, she mused.

"All right, now, keep in mind that I've never done this before," Leia warned the kids.

"We never did it before, either," Jaina reminded her mother.

"Let's see what we need to do first." Leia read the instructions. "First of all, it says, preheat the baker." Leia went back to the kitchen to warm it up.

"It says soften butter to room tempachur...what's that?" Jaina said, reading the recipe.

Leia grabbed one of the sticks of butter, which the boys had begun to play with. "It means it shouldn't be hard as a rock, which means I'll have to get it soft in the microcooker." She grabbed the two sticks before Anakin and Jacen came up with anymore ideas about digging their fingers into it, throwing it at each other, or sticking it up their noses.

She popped it into the microcooker and pondered as to how long she should let it soften. She thought thirty seconds would be enough.

Unfortunately, it was more than enough; the butter was a pool of pale yellow liquid. Leia groaned, but figured it would probably not make a difference.

"Wait till it's measured!" Leia said to Anakin, who wanted to empty the sugar into the butter and was pushing on the measuring cup that held it. Leia thanked the gods that Han had thought to provide measuring equipment when they were furnishing their apartment what felt like roughly several centuries ago. "Jacen, we need an egg, and Jaina, the flavoring."

"Which one? We got three."

"The recipe says you can use one of them, so pick the one you like."

"Not that one!" Anakin balked. "'Sides, why do we hafta have flavor?" Anakin had a fussy palate and he liked the few foods he would eat the same way: bland to the point of being nearly tasteless.

"It's in the recipe, and I'm sure it'll be delicious. And it's loaded with sugar, which I happen to know you like," Leia shot a look at her youngest child. Leia measured out a tablespoon and let Jacen empty it into the sugar and butter. It escaped her notice that the recipe indicated a teaspoon and not a tablespoon. Baking with three overly eager children was more distracting than she'd have liked, but the point was to enjoy their time together, she reminded herself. And she had no illusions that there wouldn't be squabbling; right now it was, by her standards, fairly low level.

"I wanna crack the egg!" Jaina clamored.

"No fair!" Anakin shouted back.

"You can't do it. You always mess it up!" Jaina retorted to her younger brother.

"Stop arguing, or I'll stop baking these biscuits!" Leia told all of them sharply.

"Jacen, crack the egg."

"But I wanted to do it!" Both of the other siblings complained.

"Not. Another. Word!"

Leia wondered why she'd agreed to this. But in for a penny, in for a pound, she told herself.


	2. Chapter 2

TREATS AND SWEETS

Chapter 2

Leia stared at the dough in the bowl in front of her. It was barely dough; more like cake batter. She looked at the directions. To the best of her knowledge, she'd followed them.

She then came across 'chill dough for at least two hours' in the instructions.

"We need to put this in the cooler for a couple hours," Leia informed the troops.

"Why? I wanna bake NOW," Jacen proclaimed.

"If it's cold it'll be easier to use." Leia assumed that that was the reason for the two hour chilling period. "Now, go find something to do."

This was met by considerable groaning and moaning, but the kids headed off to their room. Leia only hoped that they'd be able to find something that would amuse all three of them and not create too many arguments. She knew that this was most likely wishful thinking. In the meantime, she had work that needed catching up on. She'd elected to 'work at home,' which really translated into 'waiting for the kids to go to sleep so that I can actually attend to something, assuming my husband doesn't distract me.'

The kids were quiet at first, and Leia grabbed a datapad and began to read a report. Tariffs was not exactly a favorite subject, but it needed examination.

Her comm went off. "Hey Flyboy," she said to her husband.

"Do I have the right house? I'm not hearing any shrieking," Han asked, laughing.

"It's only been ten minutes. Give them time. What's up?"

"Chewie and I are just about done here." They'd been working on the _Falcon_, as per usual. They were taking Winter Fete off, which was not unusual. They'd done a lot of deliveries in the weeks prior.

"Great. Reinforcements are good," Leia said, laughing.

"Did you drug the kids?" Han's tone was teasing, but as soon as he said it, shrieking had commenced, along with footstomping that suggested an army of voxyn as opposed to three small children. "Okay, I've got my answer. See you soon, sweetheart." Han was laughing as he ended the comm.

"Give that back!" Jaina shouted at Anakin.

"No way!" The three were racing about the apartment, screaming about a toy that Anakin was carrying.

Leia glared at the three. "Stop the arguing, or I'll take every toy out of your room and none of you will have anything to play with!"

The kids were seemingly unimpressed and continued arguing loudly.

"In your room!" Leia shouted over them.

The three did heed that, although they were still pumping up the volume. Leia sighed. She went to the cooler to see if the dough had become more, well, dough like. Unfortunately, it had been too short of a time to see any results. She closed the door.

"Mom, is it time to bake the cookies?" Jacen said, sticking his head out of the bedroom door.

"Not yet," Leia said. "By the way, Dad's going to be home soon."

"Yay!" The three hadn't seen their father for eleven days and he'd be able to distract them. It would take Han and Chewie sixty to ninety minutes to tie everything down on the _Falcon_.

The kids retreated again to their room. A few minutes of peace was followed by a cacophony of voices but at least the door was closed and Leia could return to reviewing the incredibly boring document.

"Can we make the biscuits now?" Jaina called out to her mother.

"Not yet." Barely ten minutes had passed.

"When's it gonna be time?" Anakin echoed her.

Leia sighed. There's no rest for the wicked, she muttered to herself.

The dough was basically cold batter. Leia decided that maybe adding more flour would do the trick.

She pulled the bowl of dough out of the cooler and started to add more flour, and was pleased to see that it was finally turning into dough. Once it seemed as if it could be handled, she knocked on the kids' room door.

"Time to make the biscuits!" She called to them, and was nearly knocked over by the kids as they made their way to the table with great alacrity. Leia spread the pastry cloth she'd picked up, checking the recipe for the next instructions. It said, flour the cloth.

"Okay, each of you, grab some flour, rub it on the cloth," Leia instructed her youthful assistants. All three enthusiastically grabbed small fistfuls of flour, and then repeated the procedure again.

"Not too much, guys!" Leia warned them. They were now throwing flour on each other. She had to laugh. They were enjoying the task.

"Can we put the dough on now?" Anakin asked.

"I wanna cut the shapes out!" Jacen informed his siblings.

"All right, let me see," Leia said, picking up her datapad. "Roll out the dough - oh, feck!" She'd forgotten to get a rolling pin. But she was known for her resourcefulness.

"You guys, pat the dough down so it's thin enough to make shapes out of," she said, and the four embarked at the task at hand.

"Here's my hand!" Jacen proclaimed happily.

"We're not gonna cut out your hand," Jaina said, her tone bossy, not terribly unlike her mother's at times.

Leia wasn't sure how thick the dough was, but she handed cutters to the kids and let them go wild on the dough. They were randomly shoving the cutters in, and Leia placed them on the baking sheet, the only one she and Han owned. It had been taken off the _Falcon_ once she and Han began living together.

She smiled as she watched the kids enjoying themselves.

"I bet Daddy's gonna like these!" Jaina said, her eyes sparkling.

Leia wasn't sure what he thought, but she knew her husband would definitely try them, if for no other reason than that the kids created them.

The biscuits came out anything but even in thickness, and as they continued to pat out the dough after there was no more room to set down another cutter.

"You know what we need?" Jaina asked her mother.

"What, sweetie?"

"A _Millenniun Falcon_ cutter!"

Leia smiled. "I don't think they make those."

"But I bet Dad could make one! He can make anything!" Jacen proclaimed.

"I don't think he's ever done a biscuit cutter."

"How do you know?" Anakin pressed her.

Leia smiled. "He'll be here soon. You can ask him." She stuck a sheet full of very imperfect biscuits into the oven. It said bake for eight to ten minutes. Leia set the alarm for eight minutes and smiled as the kids patted the dough out again. The dough was becoming very dry and crumbly.

"My biscuit won't stick together!" Jacen said unhappily.

"Let's put some water in it. Put it back in the bowl," Leia instructed him. She added carefully so as to not create another bowl of batter.

The door into the apartment whooshed open, and the task was momentarily forgotten.

"Daddy!" The kids shrieked as they bombarded their father. Leia chuckled as they climbed all over him, getting flour and sugar all over him and hugging and kissing him.

"Hey, guys, what's up?"

"Daddy, we're making biscuits!" Jacen said gleefully.

Leia smiled and came over to her husband, the two sharing a kiss that spoke of more to come later on. Right now, it was family time.


	3. Chapter 3

TREATS AND SWEETS

Chapter 3

Leia checked the biscuits as the alarm went off.

The shapes were all pushing into each other and looked like pale yellow paste. The directions called for ten minutes. It looked to Leia that they needed another ten minutes. She reset the alarm and joined in with Han and the kids, who were laughing and shouting and trying to tell Han all about what they'd done while he was away.

She smiled as she watched them together, at how Han was attentive to each child, and how happy he looked with them.

She'd never have believed it when she first met him, but he had turned out to be a wonderful father. From the very beginning, he had embraced fatherhood in a way that made Leia love Han even more.

She sat down on the sofa next to Han. She had plans for him later. Right now, it was wonderful to be there as a family.

"Hold on. Leia, is something in the baker?"

Leia sniffed the air and remembered that there were biscuits in the oven. She ran towards the kitchen and opened the baker.

The biscuits were very, very dark brown. Any longer than that and they'd have been charcoal. She sighed unhappily. The kids were going to be very disappointed.

"Are they done?" Jacen said, following on her heels.

"They're done," Leia said, without enthusiasm.

"They're great!" Anakin said. "Can we put frosting on them? Like in the bakery?"

"But better," Jaina chipped in.

Leia smiled, but then realized that she had no idea how to make frosting.

"We need frosting!" Jacen proclaimed.

Leia thumbed through the datapad.

"Han, little help here!" she called out.

He followed the kids to the kitchen and stared at their creations. Leia looked at her husband sadly. "As you can see, I'm not much of a baker."

"Kids like 'em," Han shrugged, smiling at her.

"Do you know how to make frosting?" Leia stage whispered to him.

Han contemplated the question. "I think I might remember how Dewlanna did it. The only time she made it was Shrike's birthday, since apparently he was the only one who was allowed to have one." He grabbed the package of sugar, added some flavoring, added some butter, and tossed in some water.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Jaina chided her father.

"Me, too," Han mumbled.

"How come Shrike was the only one who could have a birthday? Everyone has a birthday," Jacen asked.

"Hey, I didn't even know my own till your mom found it."

"I like birthdays!" Anakin said happily. "But I like Winter Fete more!"

"Only 'cuz you get more presents!" Jaina taunted him.

"Jaina, dear one, you like presents as much as anyone," Leia said to her daughter in a droll tone.

"I love presents!" Jacen said happily.

Han was staring at the mixture in the saucepot, wondering if he'd screwed it up. The mixture boiled and bubbled but didn't know if this was how it was supposed to look. All he knew was that it didn't look anything like Dewlanna's. At least not yet.

"Is it frosting yet?" Jaina wheedled.

"Just a little longer, sweet baby."

"I wanna frost cookies!" Jacen protested.

"Don't worry, Daddy's got it covered," Leia assured the kids. She looked up at Han. "You've got it covered, right?"

Han's expression read, I'm very likely screwed, but he continued with the task at hand.

Finally, it began to look like a mound of marshmallow, and Han pulled it off the heat.

"Can we frost it now? Please?" begged Anakin.

Han poured the mixture into a waiting bowl. "Not yet. Too hot."

"But we wanna frost NOW!" Jaina added for emphasis.

"Five minutes. Let's see if you guys can be quiet for five minutes."

"Never happen," Leia laughed.

"Of course it won't," Han grinned at Leia and pulled her in for a real kiss.

"Eeuw! Gross!" came three voices of young children.

"Take it somewhere else, then," Han said, returning to kissing Leia. "I missed you," he whispered into her ear.

"I'd say you have no idea, but you do," Leia chuckled as she spoke in a soft, husky tone.

"Mom! Dad! We can't spread it!" Jacen reported in alarm.

"Lemme see," Han said, looking at the sticky mess. It was in fact solidifying.

"Maybe some more cream?" Leia suggested.

"Worth a try," Han said, reaching into the cooler for the container. He began stirring it in. It was still sticky and he poured in more cream than actually needed, but the kids happily began frosting the biscuits in front of them.

"Mom, where's the colored sugar you got us?" Jaina asked.

"Here it is. Have at it," Leia said, putting five containers on the table with them.

"Aren't you gonna frost with us?" Anakin said, staring at his parents.

"Wouldn't miss it," Han said, and he and Leia sat down at the table with them.

The five of them laughed as they became sticky and sugary. The carpet was bound to suffer as well, and at the moment, no one cared.

"Well, there's one shirt that won't see white again," Han said, looking at the mess of color. He began shooting holos of them, and they all made faces at the camera as they frosted and ate and sprinkled sugar everywhere. Anakin tapped his mother's nose with a large dab of frosting. Everyone had it in their hair and on their clothes and there was more than a small amount that had hit the floor.

Soon enough, every biscuit was frosted and sugared, and the shower in the 'fresher was getting the workout with three sugar crusted kids. Hair was shampooed and pajamas put on. Han read to them while Leia went about cleaning up, smiling at her family. They were coming down from their sugar rush, and by the time Han finished reading, Anakin had fallen asleep, and Han had carried the little boy into the kids' room. Leia came in and they tucked the twins in, who were themselves near sleep.

Han and Leia snuggled up to each other on the sofa.

"The biscuits were pretty terrible," Leia said, chuckling.

"Yeah, I'd say so. But the kids liked 'em, and that was the whole point." He and Leia looked at the holos he'd taken.

"We'll look at that in fifty years and remember how much fun it was," Leia said. "However, I'm ready to become less sticky. I think I need a shower. Care to join me?"

Han flashed her a warm smile, impishness dancing in his green gold eyes. "That's my idea of a sweet treat."


End file.
